Futuristic Riftwalkers

[Mitheral]

The sun was setting in the west as the Sikorsky flew past the northern tip of Long Island toward Plum Island. Plum Island had once been under the control of the USDA Animal Disease Center. As part of the debt reduction act the island was placed up for auction. The current owner was likely the mysterious benefactor named George Ross who had sent out private security men - mercenaries - with an offer neither man could refuse.


The helicopter’s approach was a high energy, nerve wracking descent. After coming in high over the island, it plummeted down in a corkscrew fashion. As the ground loomed ever larger it opened up and the vertol continued straight down slowing into a more gentle descent. Even one of the mercenaries’ knuckles turned white as he gripped the seat and the man grumbled under his breath about hating that part.

The scope of the hanger was huge considering that it appeared new. It had to have been built in the past few years considering when the sale had taken place. There was a young man in the driver’s seat of futuristic looking train of personnel transport carts - like a cross between an airport baggage transport and a NASA astronaut bus. The driver was almost sullen looking, sporting signs of bruises from fighting. He looked like the sort of kid no parent would want their daughter to bring home. This was Eric Blackwell.

Eric told everyone to load up and barely gave people time to sit down before stomping on the accelerator. The trip took a few minutes but eventually opened up into another station. he didn’t bother to speak. He just waited for everyone to unload, then stomped on the accelerator to leave. Clearly he didn’t even want to know who the new arrivals were. This did nothing to make the two men feel welcome.


They were brought to a rather opulent office. The decor was like a cross between Roman and Klingon. The seat behind the oversized desk was more of a throne that a chair. And the man who sat in the chair was a giant of a man, George Ross. Everything about the man screamed alpha male even though his office screamed compensation. His eyes practically burned when he saw the two men. He gave a broad smile in an attempt to place the men at ease.


He wasted no time. Reaching down he picked up a pair of briefcases and set them on the table and gestured to his men. The two mercs walked around, each taking a briefcase and walking it around to his newcomers, but not handing it over.


“You may call me Mr Ross. My men should have told you I promised a retainer’s fee of $100,000 to come and hear my offer. When I am done, the money is yours. You may choose to accept my offer - or leave. You will, I believe, find my offer unique. In addition to affording you protection from your troubles, it will offer you unlimited opportunities for travel. First, however, the Non Disclosure Agreement. I am sorry, but what I will tell you and all you will see is highly confidential.”


He waited for the signatures, checking the documents. Then he called in an absolutely beautiful woman, very dark and mysterious. It was hard not to watch her as she crossed the room. Ross eyed her possessively. His men looked away. He handed her the documents. She nodded back in silence and departed as quietly as she had entered.


He paused for dramatic effect - he seemed to like hearing himself speak - then continued. “My wife, Mira. Now then, the offer. I have discovered a means to travel in time and space. I need specialists with your qualifications. The method of travel will require being subjected to experimental biomedical procedures which will enable you to use the equipment. Now then, questions?”


He seemed to find that a little amusing - simply stopping right there. Of course there were questions. “I suppose the first one is what sort of experimental biomedical procedures. The answer to that question lies in the answer to the other obvious question, what sort of means. I discovered an alien gateway system. Yes, like Stargate - only this one travels through time as well as space. I believe it also travels to parallel casements - What Ifs - alternate timelines. Now I did say alien. And unfortunately I believe the technology responds to alien biometrics.


“You would not be traveling alone. I also plan to send a couple mercenaries along for your protection. And for missions to times within known history I plan to send a linguist. Part of every mission will be to learn more about the creators of the gateway system. And thus far he is the only living human to know something about the languages of the aliens who built this system.”





@luggage


@Sigismund

 

[luggage]

This has got to be the weirdest day I've ever had in the history of ever.


Thus thinking, Soren was still slightly disorientated - not to mention stunned - and was very much regretting the fact that he hadn't bothered to shave. Running a hand along his jaw absently, he took a moment, before replying to the questioning man, about his day. It had been pretty normal. Well, as normal as can be for someone who was in hiding, and as hence he had thought that it would be best to take a day off and not shave. Next thing he knew, he was off in an airplane with a mysterious offer and then shoved in a helicopter with a friend he hadn't seen for years next to him. There was a bit of small talk - which was really very hard to carry out on a helicopter - and looming, built, men glaring at their every move. It wasn't the most pleasant of environments, no.


Then this flippin' weirdo of a man. Man, how much is he compensating for? Blinking out of his thoughts, Soren took another moment to quickly cast another glance at the man in question. He was imposing and practically screaming 'Alpha male'. It made him simultaneously want to snort and cringe. Mostly snort. But he restrained himself; after all, he may be his new employer and having a good first impression usually did wonders. Focussing himself to the situation, he rolled a shoulder idly and tried not to squeal like a child with a tower of presents during Christmas. It wasn't very becoming of a full grown man.


But space, he thought, fighting down the child-like glee at the thought. Space and gates through time and into alternate realities! Who knows when I'll have a chance like this again! Ah, but what if Sammy doesn't want to do this? I mean, he should want to because of the concepts at the very least, amirite? And we're being provided protection - which I need to ask him about later, I mean what could someone like him do? - and travel through time and space. Letting the thoughts flit through his head, Soren glanced between Sam and 'Mister' Ross. He ran a hand idly over his stubble again, tapping a finger against his jaw as he appraised the case of money and then the thought of travelling through time and space.


"How is this linguist of yours the only one to know anything of alien languages? And what was that about experimental biomedical procedures to activate technology that you believe to respond to alien biometrics?" Hysterical? Maybe a tad. Teeny tiny bit. Smidgen, barely.

 

[Mitheral]

Dr Alex Tanis


The answer regarding the linguist's knowledge of alien languages was not forthcoming. Quite simply, Ross didn't seem to know exactly. The answer to the aliens and experimental procedures was soon to come. The linguist, Dr Alex Tanis, was a young man in his early 20’s. He still sported a boyish face that looked like he had never had to shave. He constantly glanced around nervously as if expecting the shadows to jump out and attack him. He looked worried enough to have ulcers or be working on one. And it looked like he hadn’t slept well in days or weeks. Despite being the obvious geek in the room he was handsome enough that most women would have considered him ‘cute.’ He was everything that George Ross was not.


Alex walked to the podium set at ne end of the briefing room. His face was a little pale. He hated crowds, or more importantly public speaking. He swallowed hard as he tried to speak. George Ross reminded him about the water and the young man stared back for a moment. There was no missing both the fear and anger the younger man felt toward Ross. But he took a swallow and nodded.


This was hardly a real crowd. Ross and his wife Mira, Eric Blackwell, and the newcomer specialists: Dr Samuel Volkov and Soren Picard. This presentation was more for the newcomers than anyone else. He brought up the first slide. It was a section of a page of text in an alien language.


“Derahn, Mak Taurog, and Mogradoth. These are the names of the three races that created the gateway nexus. They were at war with one another a few million years ago. I have yet to pin down the exact dates. Now I will show you images of the three races in a moment, but you should be prepared to set prejudice aside and just them by their history, not by their appearances and their effects on our mythology. You will see why in a moment. First, let me tell you about their history as told from the perspective of the Derahn. Most of their history is written by the Derahn. The Mak Taurog and Mogradoth weren’t well known for leaving written documents. If not for them these races might have been completely forgotten. The war might never have occurred and the gateway nexus never built.


“The Derahn were empaths, shapeshifters and explorers. They are sometimes referred to as the First Explorers. When they finally achieved interstellar travel they began to learn about other races by living among them. To accomplish this they would assume the forms of those races. They were empaths with all that applies. While they once had a primitive and savage past as we did, they evolved into a peaceful and spiritual race. They developed furthest in biotechnical sciences.”


Alex now brought up an image of a statue of a Derahn. She looked like a succubus. It has been said that human males respond to certain physical characteristics common in all racial types. The Derahn had ALL of those features to perfection. Sensual was the word that best described her. However, her eyes were slitted, like a reptile’s. Her wings were partly batlike, partly saurian. Her fingers were tipped with razor sharp claws, hands slightly webbed. And she had a snakelike tail behind her. Alex changed over to an image from a scroll. In this picture the mouth was open and the sharpened catlike teeth evident as was the forked tongue - not smooth like a snake’s, but more pinkish and soft like a human’s. In both cases the skin was dark greenish and smooth, like an amphibian.


“They were females, reproducing by parthenogenesis. Toward the end of their Great War with the Mogradoth the Derahn produced a male counterpart called a Derahn Guardian. The Mogradoth called these guardians Spirit Agents of Death - or Slayers. I will come back to the Guardians later and how this is important to the gateway nexus.


The next image was a Mak Taurog. They were very similar in form to the Derahn and Mogradoth – two arms, two legs, and wings. However, they gave the appearance of having evolved from bats. Their skin was a soft black leathery hide. Their eyes were solid pitch black. Their wings were equally black, and reminiscent of bats. Their faces were expressionless, giving no hint of their emotions.


“The Mak Taurog were devoted to logic and hard sciences rather than biomedical ones. They did their best to remain removed from the war, but were drawn into it by the Mogradoth. They were a highly reclusive race - even among themselves. I have found references to the Derahn speaking FOR them. The Mak Taurog did not care to even communicate. They were almost xenophobic - except that fear would not have been logical.”


The last image looked like a Balrog or Pit Fiend from AD&D. It had a reddish brown leathery hide. It bore a powerful musculature. It had angry, slitted eyes, larger canines, the same forked tongue, but smoother. The tail was much heavier, talons longer.


“The Mogradoth. They stood about twice as tall as a human. Their world is described as a hot world - worse than Vulcan in Star Trek. Culturally the closest I can come up with are Klingons. Battle was everything to them. This isn’t to say that they were violent with no reason. At the height of their culture they developed a philosophy called the Path. Followers of the Path were regarded by the other races with respect.


“When the Derahn first encountered the Mogradoth, the latter were still brutal and technologically primitive by comparison. The Mogradoth attacked with a savagery such as the Derahn had never encountered - not on the first visit but a later encounter after lulling the Derahn into a false sense of peace. The Mogradoth forced the Mak Taurog into joining the war by threatening to destroy their homeworld.


“And now we come to the Derahn Guardians. These were a male version of the Derahn, genetically engineered to fight the Mogradoth. The First Guardian was Rassanon, created from the genetic code of the Derahn Queen Mother herself. He and the other Guardians single handedly began to turn the war around. The Mogradoth, recognizing that the tide of battle had turned against them found another solution.


“Marriage. The Mogradoth Lord proposed to the Deahn Queen Mother. The concept of a peaceful solution to an interstellar war that had ravaged countless worlds appealed to the Queen and the war ended. The Derahn Empire was born. Rassanon warned of the dangers of the liaison’s offspring and the Emperor’s son started to come of age. When the Queen and Emperor were slain Rassanon was declared a bastard and a traitor and forced into exile, their deaths blamed on him.


“Rassanon came to Earth about 2 million years ago while Homo australopithecus walked. In exchange for acceptance into the tribe he gave humans an accelerated evolution. In short, the old joke about there being a little demon in all of us has an ounce of truth to it. Over the centuries, of course, the latent genes have become highly diluted. However it is possible to graft a sample of alien DNA to a human host and thus allow us to access the gateway system.”

 

[Dapper Bunny]

Samuel had remained quiet until this linguist finished although his mind had already worked out the many different possibilities with this... New path?


Huh... One morning and suddenly bam. I was in a car and driven all the way to a helicopter.. Although meeting Ren again was... A welcoming surprise.. Even if we didn't talk that much with those gorillas hanging around our necks. Samuel studied each of the three alien species as they came on screen. Interesting... Even if a bit laughable that the young man is using fiction to help explain this... Peculiar scenario. Although.. Sam stared silently and maybe a little bit menacing to the young man..


"While this is quite fascinating. Alez? Alex? Hmh.. And the sound of waking dormant genes are quite... Interesting. But! What are the consequences? These alien species.. I would believe that fewer than 2% of the human population knows this? Have you already experimented with re-crossing this dna? One major fact about us humans is.. Our genetic ability to adapt and mutate...


"Unlike for an example the evolutionary theory of the Crocodylia order, for million years they have looked the same.. In short, they have adapted completetly to their extend.. Unlike us, we are still changing although at a slower pace than other species, because we are changing by our own means and tools.


"What we are doing right now is both a evolutionary step forward and backwards.. We are not creating new genes we are waking old ones. What Rassanon saw in Homo australophithecus is one thing, but he would not be able to foresee our evolution to this.. In many theories.. The deaths we have outnumber the living. And atleast 1/3 of the dead are from warfare. If the Derahn were evolved to a peaceful and spiritual race, I would be mortified to see that a 'minor' race that I had helped turned into, well bloodthirsty savages..."





Volkov finally shut his mouth and waited for an answer. Although.. The chances of accepting this... Proposal is still pretty high, I rather die with science close by than in a ditch by a mafia member's bullet. Or in a cell to die of old age.





Samuel scratched his beard and turned slightly to Ren, a short smile and nod. So...Old friend, what is your mind working on? Your composure certainly screams adventure. Hmmh... Adventure. Atleast it's a getaway from home problems. Atleast this.. Mister Ross seems to have the "currency" to protect.. But so did many other people say... Samuel shifted his attention to Ross, discreetly trying to learn something from the mans face... Why do you really want to do this... Your build and home certainly doesn't scream for science and mankind.. Are you hiding personal gains... Mister Ross? Samuel blinked and turned his attention quickly back to the linguist.

 

[Mitheral]

Alex shook his head. “I believe I am the only human on the planet that is both aware of the language, that it is of alien origins, and has an understanding of it. My family has researched it for centuries. And I believe Rassanon knew exactly what he was doing.”


Ross decided to cut that conversation short. “Well, then you have a basic understanding now. As to the graft procedures, we will be using a double blind system. Not all of you will receive the graft. At least two of you will. The one holding the remote does not have to be one with a graft. But the one with the graft needs to be alive and within 3 meters. This is partly a matter of trust or a lack thereof. Simply put, it keeps both you - and my own men in check.


“The first team will consist of Dr Tanis, Dr Volkov, Dr Picard, and two of my men --” he continued until he was interrupted.


“And me,” Eric Blackwell looked hard at Ross.


Ross looked irritated. “And Mr Blackwell - who can show everyone their rooms.” He said this almost as though he expected Eric to be a porter. “When you are on site living space will be provided. I trust you will find it quite luxurious - eventually. I left most of the detailing up to you gentlemen. Once you have settled in you can see Dr Tanis about gear. There will be computers in your rooms. Feel free to make up any lists of equipment you will need. Please bear in mind that you will be on foot. Don’t weigh yourselves down.


“Finally, I would like a short list of proposed mission sites, made in a prioritized order. Dr Tanis will research the mission eras in as much as he can and make crib notes --”


Eric seemed to have gotten bored with listening to Ross speak. He stood up to head toward the exit. “Oh … George! We also need to know where you found the gateway.”


“That is classified --” Ross started.


For the first time Alex interrupted Ross. “Actually he is right, Mr Ross. If we are to track down information through time about the builders of the gateway, we need a geographic starting point. More specifically in what strata it was found. That would help pin down the exact era at which it was lost to begin with.”


Ross clenched his jaw. “Very well. It was found in Nepal, high in the Himalayas. If you were thinking of going there, I suggest you dress warmly.”


Alex frowned. “Nepal? The Derahn and Mak Taurog may very well have influenced Asian mythology. Their demons are typically neither good nor evil. The Mogradoth seemed to have preferred warmer climates and may be partly responsible for the myths of Baal, or earth demons.”


Eric scowled. “Yeah, well let’s get this show on the road. Alex, I’ll help you pick out some gear.” Then perhaps some sort of madness must have hit Eric, for he turned to Ross’ wife with a completely changed demeanor. “Ma’am, sorry about my temper. But your husband does rub me the wrong way.” He gave her a charming smile and a small bow. “Oh, I almost forgot. I brought the munchkin a toy.” He handed over a package. “Let him open it. Kids love tearing into wrapping. He’ll probably have fun just playing with the wrapping itself. Just try to keep the guy away from my bike …?” Eric ignored the look Ross gave him.

 

[luggage]

Soren was feeling more than out of his depth at the volley of knowledge that he had been bombarded with and still mostly excited about the prospect of real actual aliens to add to everything. Like space by itself hadn't been amazing enough, there was a lure now. Blinking, he took a few moments to carefully sort the information in his mind and get everything into some sort of order.


Okay, three races that created the gateway system; one with perfect, succubus-like women, one with bat-people and the last with something like a balrog right from the depths of the Middle Earth. One race that's peaceful, other logical and last violent - focussed on some sort of Path? Oh, and not to forget, we've got latent alien genes apparently. Lovely. Maybe he didn't do it on purpose, but I do see that the graft system procedure hasn't been told to us, considering we may very well be the ones its going to be carried out in. I'll assume that means there's going to be pain, and a lot of it. I wonder if there'll be physical changes with it. I rather like my skin the way it is, thanks. Shaking his head minutely, the engineer pulled himself out of his thoughts and looked up to see Eric conversing with Ross' enigmatic wife about toys and children while Ross glared on. It made him want to smirk but, again, he had to control his urges. After all, it looked like both he and Sam had decided to stay for this madness so he thought he should be on best behaviour at least until he understood more of his employer.


Rolling his shoulders with a small cracking noise, Soren sat up straighter, turning his head to properly study his friend. Best friend, he corrected himself, if he still thinks of me that way. We haven't exactly talked to each other properly for a long while now. He felt a twinge of guilt at the fact that he hadn't truly missed Sam a lot. Yes, he had occasionally remembered about him when something particularly reminiscent of old times had happened, but he hadn't had time to make their communication more than a few emails every week. Still, he had to admit that he felt better now that he had Sam around and felt much like he had been transported back in time. A small smile quirked his lips. Turning his head, he turned to glance between the other occupants of the room, absently noting down stances and area of movement in the case he needed to fight. He doubted it would happen now, but it never hurt to be careful. It also provided some sort of relaxation, the little scan he tended to do to everyone to help feel centered.


"I, for one, would like to be shown to my room. Its been a long day and a shower wouldn't be amiss. Nor would a computer actually," he said, mentally adding a quick: not to mention I'd like to get a chance to talk to Sammy about this whole situation alone, goddammit. And maybe do some patterns to calm down. This whole situation is screaming suspicious.

 

[Mitheral]

Alex nodded. “Eric, he’s right. They’ve been travelling half the day no doubt. How about I show they to their rooms. You mind pulling kitchen duty again?”


Eric became ever so briefly hypervigilant. Soren could see the younger man’s movements suddenly become very carefully measured. There was little doubt the guy had received some pretty advanced training in martial arts himself. The bad boy image was something of a ruse. The guy could be disciplined if he chose to be.


“Yeah,” Eric smiled. “How about something simple? Steaks are quick and filling. How about … uhm two hours? That should be plenty of time to show them to their rooms, how to log on to the intranet. Try to keep it simple. They don’t need lectures. Like Dr Picard said, they need time to grab showers and change.”


Alex nodded. “And actually we can put off all the decision making until tomorrow morning when you’ve had time to sleep and relax. Eric’s not a bad chef. So prepare yourself for a treat. When he says something simple, expect a surprise. This way.”


+++++++++++++


Alex led Soren and Samuel to a the living section for specialists. The first suite he informed them was Soren’s. Samuel’s was across the hall. His own suite was the next one down the hall from Soren’s. Eric’s suite was across from Alex’s - which made him Sam’s neighbor. These were luxury bunker suites. Each was over 3000 square feet laid out in two and a half floors. The basement level was an artificial solarium with a six man jacuzzi. There was an airlock system to enter to keep humidity from affecting the rest of the suite. The upper floor was the master bedroom and bath with an office suite. The office had a state of the art workstation. While hardly as opulent as Ross’ office, it had the same amenities. Large flatscreens, power gloves, transparent War screens, light table, VR visor.


“All I can say is that this place reminds me of Jurassic Park where the guy says, “Only the best… Okay, let me show you how to log on and set your passwords. Biometric security is used. Voice print, Optic retinal, and hand print…”


++++++++++


Elsewhere Eric got to work pulling out steaks. He was almost always hungry. But he was still healing up from the beating he’d received at Ross’ hands. Ross had played around with him. If the man had wanted him or Alex dead he could have done it at any time. He regretted first impression he had given Soren and Samuel. They seemed like decent guys. But he’d been angry at the time. He sighed. It was time to get a little more creative. Brute force simply wasn’t going to work against Ross. He smiled to himself at how Ross had become a little angry at his flirting with the man’s wife. He almost felt a little guilty at using her like that. It wasn’t her fault her husband was such a douchebag. But it also felt good to offer her a little kindness.


What was clever was HOW he had flirted. He had picked her one weakness and the one thing that would push Ross’ buttons. The Mak Taurani. It was a tiny demon creature, a homunculus, created by the Mak Taurog. And it was absolutely devoted to Mira. Ross had gotten angry at the creature when it got underfoot and flown into one of his rages. Mira had shielded it with her own body. That was how Eric had gotten himself beaten so badly. Ross had gone after the thing. Eric had protected it with HIS body, then handed the little guy over to Mira who looked accusingly at Ross.


Now it was time to further the second part of his plan to Divide and Conquer. Eoss hadn’t started with human test subjects for grafting. He had used a huge Mastiff named Romulus. Ross had discovered that canines were affected very differently from humans. Romulus had grown to the size of a horse and filled out with a sort of bulldoggish shape. His natural weapons has become larger and sharper. His paws had developed the ability for crude manipulation. He had become a Hellhound.


Eric was careful to select steaks with no bones. He didn’t want Ross to catch onto the fact that someone else was feeding his dog. The result was that Romulus had already begun to get used to Eric. Once he had selected about 72 ounces of fine porterhouse steaks - a snack - Eric headed on down to see the big pooch.


He found Romulus chained up as usual. Ross had gotten pissed and beaten the dog when Romulus had chewed up some of Ross’s favorite cigars. Mira hated the smelly things - especially when Ross blew the smoke right in her face. The cigars were the reason the Mak Taurani had gotten Ross so mad. The little thing had seen Ross clipping the tips off a cigar and tried to mimic him with the rest of the cigars when he stepped out. There had been pieces of fine Cubans everywhere.


The little Mak Taurani had spotted Eric and followed. Eric had come prepared for that and had brought a Hershey Kiss. This he unwrapped and offered to the creature. The gave a shrill shriek, skritched and chittered, then grabbed the candy. That would prevent jealousy.


“Who’s the good dog?” Eric asked. “Hey there Romulus. We were having steak dinner tonight and I couldn’t forget my bestest bud, now could I? Can you say Porterhouse?”


Romulus woofed softly, “Poah wooah!”


Eric grinned. “Close enough. Give that dog a cigar!” Romulus growl whined. “Aww!” Eric set the whole stack of steaks in front of him. “Sorry Bud, but can’t leave you the plate to lick. If Ross finds out I’m doing this he’ll put an end to it.”

 

[Dapper Bunny]

Sam studied his room for a shortwhile. "Eh, Alex. I have no need for the computers." Samuel went over and studied the flatscreens. "To keep it short... A hunted man has little time for amenities, and it has been stuck with me to avoid many things. That is one of the reasons that I've had little to no contact with my friends, it isn't always easy to use public computers."


Samuel cracked his knuckles and continued to study the bedroom. "Books are fine enough for me." Samuel returned back to Alex with a puzzled expression. "So, can you tell us more about the aliens? Or about these.. Grafts? Also while it's understandable that there will be these.. 'Bodyguards' with us who will take care of, well weaponry. Are Ren and I to get other tools?"


Samuel slowly went silent again and evaluate the situation again. Hmmh. Alien species.. While it is possible the biggest achievement for humanity with this.. It is also a dark secret known by only us... Still.... Ross promised safehaven, while I don't know if his words are good, it is clearly that he was sort of desperate in a way... Few people would pay others just to show up, atleast not $100,000. Well.. Once I've gotten my answers from Alex I can go and talk with Ren about this. He should have some questions and opinions of his own. A shower would be nice, but I can take it after dinner. I wouldn't let myself get too comfortable.





Samuel nodded to his own thoughts and looked back to Alex. "And you never got the chance to tell me about these... Dormant genes, how are they going to affect us? And have you tested it before?.. Oh and well excuse for asking questions, I tend to ask a lot... Especially when it comes to, well offers like this... It's unusual. Atleast for me... Oh and one more question. You said you believed that Rassanon knew what he was doing.. Believe does mean not one hundred percent sure, How much knowledge have you been able to actually get? Unless that is classified.


I just want to be sure that I am not going to die the second these genes are waking up or as soon as I step into this... Waygate."

 

[Mitheral]

Alex listened and waited until Dr Volkov was done. “First, the computers don’t connect with the outside world. Intranet only. Ross has the only computers that reach the outside. He’s paranoid about security. Second, every room has a workstation.


“Third … tools. That is what tomorrow meeting needs to cover. Be thinking about what you think you’ll want to carry with you. Personally I recommend weapons appropriate to the era we are travelling. And I suggest our test run be to an era that was very primitive … like 3000 BC. Even simple bulletproof vests of today’s manufacture would protect us very well. Dr Volkov, you might want to consider assembling a basic first aid kit that someone of your skills could use. Imagine penicillin during a plague or medieval war.”


“As far as the rest goes, most is classified. However, I can tell you that the alien DNA has been tested on animals - in particular Ross’ dog, a Mastiff named Romulus. The results were … spectacular. Romulus will probably be accompanying us. He’s the size of a horse.”


“I think we are going to be fine as far as the jump goes. By fine I mean that it won’t kill us. The other side is another matter. But I believe that the Derahn created the gateway system to access habitable locations. Think about it like a scientist. If you created a transit system, wouldn’t you want the accessible points to be something you could survive. And if you needed to go to a hostile environment, wouldn’t you have a safety measure in place to prevent a bad jump?


“I also believe that Rassanon may have had something to do with the building of the gateway system. If that is true it could be millions of years old. Compare that figure to human history. Then look at the supercontinent cycle. We haven’t really begun to comprehend Time.


“One possible point in history I would consider - despite the inherent dangers is ancient Japan - though not for an initial jump.”

 

[luggage]

How can I even momentarily forget Sam's legendary questioning abilities? Soren mused, taking the chance to wander around the suite that was supposed to be his and investigate everything. The others were gone to Samuel's room, exploring it, and Soren could somewhat hear there conversation. Especially something about 3000 BC. The engineer stretched, walking out of his own suite to Sam's and leaning against the doorway as he listened to the end of the conversation.


Weren't wheels made by then? Ah, goddammit. I would've loved going there and introducing the wheel to everyone. I'd be hailed a hero. Not to mention I'd love to see the looks on their faces when they find out how easy transportation becomes with wheels, Soren mused to himself, mind whirring away as he thought of different time periods he would have liked to visit. He'd always had a fondness for Archimedes. Watching Alex and Sam move around, he wondered on weapons.


"Weapons appropriate to the era we travel to, did you say?" He asked, grimacing at the thought of having to fight with a sword, or even a spear. He knew he should've taken fencing in his free time instead of rushing towards the martial arts. But at least that meant he wouldn't need weapons. Though if he ever had to fight against someone with a spear or trident, then yes, weapons would be preferable. What was it Sam did again? Archery wasn't it? At least he can play long range support, though I'd be a horrible tank. Putting the thoughts aside, he continued to lean against the doorway. "Where are we going first? I heard something about 3000 BC, but 3000 BC in which empire, exactly? Why are we going so far back for our first jump? I remembered something about parallel universes before too, so does that mean we're going into an alternate 3000 BC or just the one in our timeline? How dangerous is this, exactly? Has the gateway been used before or are we the first guinea pigs to do this?" The mere thought that they were going to be the first in all of this...whatever it was, was making him a bit nervous. First people using a waygate wasn't something that sounded as exciting when it looked like they'll be the first ones to go through it.

 

[Mitheral]

Alex clenched his teeth and for the first time the nervous kid lost his temper. He didn’t explode or anything. But his voice betrayed the stress he was under. “I’ve told you what I can! When and where we will TRY to go we can discuss tomorrow - as a group. Well, the specialists will discuss it. We don’t need the mercs for that - though I’d like Eric there. Him I trust - not that I mean any offense to you two.”


He exhaled a little as he forced himself to calm down. “Sorry, I wish I could tell you guys more, but I either don’t know - have reliable data - or the information is classified. Ross hired me to come and decipher the Derahn hieroglyphics I had found. Turns out that weren’t exactly Derahn, but some unique form if the language that I can’t translate. I think it may have been a form of Derahn Esperanto - an artificial language that was adopted as a common language. But I have nothing in my library about this stuff.


“I’ll be very honest. I don’t think we are going to go where we plan anyways. So i would think in terms of a concept of where we want to go. I will be the one assigned to carry the Matrix. Not my idea - Ross’. He is assigning me to be in charge which I am none too keen on.


“I would make a list of the weapons YOU want. Custom design it on paper and Ross will probably have it built. The first mission is planned for two weeks. After that Ross will send out an auto recall to try to bring us back. The precise time will be whatever the local sunset time is on our 14th day. If the Matrix won’t respond - because we lost it and are trying to get it back - Ross will try again after another two weeks. If we make an emergency jump we will probably be on our own - and likely lost in time and space with nothing to our names.”


++++++++++


Elsewhere Eric busily worked in the kitchen preparing not steak exactly - but Fondue. Rather ambitiously he decided to surprise them with a multi course meal of Swiss, French and Italian fondues - complete with meat parcels ready to cook in spiced oils to be dipped in various cheese sauces. Breads and potatoes - also cut into bite sized morsels to be dipped in grated cheese melted into white wine. And then there were the fruit selections to be dipped in chocolates and natural homemade peanut butter. He also managed to fit in some mushroom and tomato selections.


Eric didn’t stop there either. He went the full route, with garnishes and all. He had places set in the home theater center. He rolled in a rotating table, set places around it with Japanese sushi tables, and finally flopped out some bean bag chairs. He set the trays up with proper silverware arrangements. He had the napkins properly folded. He never ceased to surprise Alex with his knowledge about cooking or haute cuisine practices.


The last tray he set was extra tiny - with mini marshmallows. The Mak Taurani couldn’t eat solid food. But it it was able to melt in his mouth he’d be fine. And if he thought everyone was socializing and he was left out, he’d likely pitch a fit.

 

[luggage]

Soren took his own sweet time; after all, if he had been employed for going through an untested Way-gate he thought he should have the right to take as long a shower as he wanted. Unfortunately it wasn't the most exciting thing he could be doing, so he took some time after that to wander around his newly given quarters and explore every nook and cranny. He wished, somewhat, that he had camera detectors. It wouldn't do if this were to turn out like Homeland with everyone tracking his every move. Though I'm not really a terrorist-turned-CIA-agent-but-still-really-with-the-vaguest-role-ever. He mused the possibility of it over before firmly telling himself that he was not involved in acts of terrorism so that wasn't likely. Although Ross did seem like the kind of man who would have eyes and ears on everyone.


Giving up on the line of thought, Soren decided that he needed to be much more relaxed if he wanted to be able to function later. So, taking up residence in one of the much more emptier areas with more space to move around in, he took his 'at ease' position and took in a deep breath. Rolling his shoulders once, he commenced.


"Alright, charyeot."


____


After going through various patterns in both the styles - he thought a little training never hurt. Not to mention he was working hard for his next dan though that didn't seem entirely possible now. He debated on another shower before deciding that no, it wasn't the way to go, and instead changed into cleaner clothes and made his way out of his quarters. He wandered the corridors for a while, peering into unlocked rooms and suspiciously looking at walls in search of cameras that were planted visibly. Soon enough the engineer found his stomach revolting rather viciously and decided that yes, it was time for dinner. A few minutes passed as he tried to orient himself to find his room again before he just gave up and walked around until he found himself in what seemed to be the home theatre centre. Or it would be, but currently seemed to be set up for dinner. Humming curiously, Soren glanced around once before making his way in. The tables were set up, there were beanbags - which made him pause in incredulity because really? Mother would have a heart attack. Still, he studied the arrangements, looked at the little plate of marshmallows curiously and then resisted the urge to grimace because he could smell cheese. Cheese meant fondue. He really wasn't that fond of cheese. Sighing hugely, he wandered to sit on one of the beanbags, wondering if it would be impolite to pop a marshmallow when it seemed to be set out for someone else. Deciding against it, he just settled into a beanbag, moving the place setting in front of him to the side carefully and setting his head against the table with a small groan. He was tired and everything was going by fast. One minute he was being chased by a gang that wanted him dead and the next he was in a random little island and being offered a job. Whiplash.


"This is the longest day ever," he muttered to himself, huffing against the wood and setting his arms more comfortably next to his head. "Even the thoughts of space and time aren't helping."

 

[Mitheral]

Eric was, despite his bad boy image, a masterful chef. And he had been prepared for anyone lactose intolerant, vegetarian, or some other eating issue. He had more steak thawed out, some quail, eel, live lobsters, fresh grown garden veggies. He’d had some steak and lamb (kosher) they he could quickly cut into larger chunks for a kabob. He set up a cooking tray just for Soren. He broke out Portabella mushrooms, white asparagus, small tomatoes and other veggies along with cooking spears for kabobs. Then he brought out various bowls of dipping sauces that weren’t cheese - Asian styles, Indian styles, Mediterranean. The quail he offered to simmer in wine. For all the bad mood Eric had been in when they arrived he seemed in better spirits now.


Alex even began to smile. Eric loved to cook. Of course, he loved it even more when he was cooking for some lady.


Eric spoke up. “The Mak Taurani can not eat solid food. Liquid or something that will dissolve when he eats it. And please don’t dip into his dish. You do NOT want to know what is actually in it. He just doesn’t like to feel left out. So I always prepare something just for him. Oh crap … I forgot the larger marshmallows. If anyone needs anything just let me know. Sorry about the … furniture, but I kinda rushed. It was the best I could think of on short notice.”


**************

JUMP 001

​

The Team

​

Specialists


Alex Tanis


Eric Blackwell


Soren Picard


Mercs


Karl Garcia


William Heston


Others


Romulus


Ross had decided to meddle with the choices of jump locations. Despite Alex’s objections about the dangers of such a jump for a first attempt Ross had chosen ancient Japan - specifically the Yayoi era (300 BC to 300 AD). This was an Iron Age era during which new techniques in bronze and iron were introduced as well as the extensive rice paddies. Alex hated to admit it, but the idea of seeing such an era in person excited him.


Eric, on the other hand, had other ideas. He wanted to get Alex as far away from Ross as possible. He had come to regard Alex as family - like the little brother he had never had. But getting him away from Ross meant doing something about the two goons that were being sent to keep an eye on him. Eric didn’t believe for a second that the grafts would be random. The two goons would be the ones given the grafts. It was the only logical choice Ross could make and keep control over the situation.


That had made Eric’s choices easy.


When the group met up in the Jump Room, Eric drove in with supplies. Ross had said to travel light. Alex had decided a base camp would be a good idea. It would be a place to regroup if they got separated. Among the supplies was a large foot locker. He said it would have most of everything they would need. The mercs asked about ammo and claymores. But Eric explained that Alex had vetoed the idea. They had decided that if that sort of ammo was needed they would be making an emergency jump - and ammo wouldn’t travel with them for that.


The mercs had arrived with Romulus - on a tight leash and muzzled. The dog looked miserable. Eric walked over and started undoing the muzzle. “He isn’t going to do us any good muzzled. Being bowled over and licked to death is just going to be one of the downsides.” The mercs looked over at Ross, expecting an objection, but he simply nodded his permission.


Eric asked Alex about his glasses - which were on a sports band. He also had an extra pair, plus contacts. Eric gave a thumbs up. Then he opened up a second trunk from which he pulled out bullet proof vests - very light ones designed not to be obvious. He had throwing stars and nunchaku for Soren. For himself there was a katana - and not a cheap replica at that. It looked damned expensive. Of course there were other useful items like K Bar survival knives, tools (a full rolling vehicle tool box), wire saws. There were cooking implements.


Alex recommended that everyone gear up with the stuff they planned to wear long term - incase they arrived in a situation in which they had to run and leave the rest behind.


The mercenaries looked utterly sullen as Ross had forbidden them to take firearms. Of course, what he didn’t know was that neither man had obeyed orders and was carrying more than one concealed weapons and as many clips as they could hide. To avoid being spotted by Ross’ trained eyes they had worn the weapons under their vests. They would be useless until they could remove the vests and re-organize, but at least they would have them for emergencies. Screw Ross and his policies.


+++++++++++++++++


The Matrix looked so tiny. It looked like a 20 sided die about an inch across. It was metallic, sort of silvery gold and weighed in at 3 pounds despite its small size. Ross handed it over to Alex, then backed away. He held up the Matrix and concentrated. Eric absent mindedly opened a Dove’s chocolate and took a bite. Then his eyes caught the Mak Taurani’s - who was peeking around Mira.


The air around them had begun to crackle and shimmer as a 3 meter radius circle began to form. The occasional crackle of electricity was not enough to dissuade the little Mak Taurani from scurrying forward to beg for a piece of the coveted chocolate before Mira could stop him. Mira, who had never spoken in all the time anyone could recall finally spoke.


“Kritch!” She dashed after her pet before Ross could grab her and hold her back. She strongly suspected that the creature would die if separated from her by time. She entered the sphere in the 5th second and spent the next second or two trying to grab Kritch. The sphere had suddenly began to get brighter. Alex had once predicted that anything caught halfway would be sliced in half at the molecular level. Eric grabbed Mira by the waist and snatched Kritch with a wry grin. Then he yelled out at Ross with a broad grin. “I’ll take good care of her!” Then he started to dipsmooch the man’s wife.


Ross stood and glared at Eric but only for an instant.


Then they were else - what? When? Where? None of that mattered. As far as they could tell the ground hadn’t moved in the slightest. And in truth it hadn’t. The Matrix had scooped out a hemisphere of solid rock from the bottom of the floor that had been in with a castling effect on the arrival end. A circle of the floor under them had been replaced perfectly by the rock. Unfortunately that floor was in no condition to support such a weight.


For the first several seconds all anyone could do was reel with nausea and weakness - except the two mercenaries - who had concealed firearms against strict orders under their vests. Their guns and ammunition exploded in that first instant.


The building they had arrive in was an abandoned skyscraper - as it so happens pagoda styled. It hadn’t been maintained in over a decade at the very least. The writings here and there were all in Japanese. So it was likely they had made it to Japan - just not the Japan they had wanted. But they barely had time for their minds to register that fact before the steel girders began to complain about the sudden stress placed on them.


4.08 seconds - The floor under the group suddenly gave way and dropped out from under them. Fortunately the fall was slowed a little by the fact that there was a work crawl space between floors and it took a little longer for the lower part to give way. Equally fortunate was the fact that the drop was only a single floor. Crates, tool chest, horse sized Romulus, and several people all experienced a brief freefall before being slammed back into the stone.


4.78 seconds - The group slammed into the stone ground. Despite the nausea and disorientation survival instincts began to kick in for the floor immediately shrieked and groaned giving way and they began to fall through again.


5.23 seconds - The floor gave way. Eric used basic action reaction to fling Mira away and off the stone hemisphere. His next thought was Alex. Alex was recovering as fast as Eric, but was shaken up more by the falling. By sheer miracle he still held onto the Matrix.


6.01 seconds - They slammed into their second floor down. Eric began to speed up his response time. He saw Alex clutching the Matrix like it was their lifeline. Eric staggered toward him, but not before his footing gave way again.


6.83 seconds - this time when they hit the floor didn’t completely stop. But Eric managed to grab Alex and throw him bodily off the slab in mid fall. There was no chance of removing Romulus. He simply weighed too much. Besides as cruel as it sounded his next priority was the food locker. Soren was already staggering and quite possibly the most nimble of them all. (OOC: Soren could stagger out around this time, still badly affected by Lag, which he recovers from by 9.0 seconds. Eric isn’t bothering with the mercs. 50 floors won’t take but about 6 - 7 seconds in true freefall.)


Except Ulana.


8.47 seconds. Two floors later with the stone picking up speed Eric had made it to the food locker. He ignored the steel girder than had followed him and slammed into the stone merely speeding up the process of falling a little more. Eric grabbed the handle on one end of the locker with both hands and heaved. He barely had time to register how many floors they had fallen. It was a guess but he figured on 5-6 floors below where they had started - which meant they were in a high rise or skyscraper. The fact that he didn’t see skyline through broken windows wasn’t a good sign.


The stone continued to accelerate, no longer stopping, merely being cushioned by the floors it plowed through. Romulus awakened in time to bowl Eric over to shoulder the impact of an I beam and stand over the human like a guard dog. The pair continued to descend into the darkness.


OOC: It is daylight outside - probably midday. Moving about in the skyscraper to regroup is going to take some time. (Ulana is the reason Alex never left Ross. Eric replaced most of the food with her - and a small O2 tank. Thing is, he never told Alex what he was up to. Ulana looks Japanese. I’ll have a pic for her when the group gets to her.)

 

[luggage]

Jumping, as Soren thought grimly, sounds much more cooler than it is in practice. He was very much regretting his agreement to the jump when the ground from under him had wobbled and they had started a slow falling descent down a sky scraper like a movie. Or a video game. Or one of those anime shows where the character could somehow jump from the falling rock to other falling rocks and hence onto safety with dramatic music playing in the background. (Cough, Naruto.) Pf, not like I watch - or used to watch, for that matter - animes or anything. The thought was a rather random one, he had to admit, given the circumstances and the fact that his stomach was staging an uprising and trying to either choke him with vomit or something else. How very Vogon. In the few seconds that everything had managed to go to hell, Soren spent the time trying to get to his feet. Once he had managed to somewhat stagger upwards, he could only watch as Tanis was tossed onto a nearby floor that seemed relatively undamaged and Eric was making his way to the food locker.


He was very tempted to scream at the other man, but survival instincts took over and after swallowing down a particularly nasty bile-rise, Soren stumbled towards the edge of the rocks and tried to figure out how dangerous it would be if he jumped. He was never one for BASE jumping, and while adrenaline was good, this was much too hazardous. Steeling himself, Soren took the leap of faith just as he heard the sound of a locker door being wrenched open. He squeezed his eyes shut, falling against stable ground and rolling to lessen the impact as much as he could. After a few seconds of lying there and letting his stomach rest, he cautiously flickered an eye open, staring at the ceiling above him with trepidation as if he was waiting for it to fall too. Luckily it held. The sound of rock against rock was echoing upwards, which meant that Eric and Romulus were still on their way down. I hope he jumped off. I get that food's a priority but I'm pretty sure we could still manage without it. Flippin' hell, what is wrong with him? After a few more seconds of simply lying on the floor and taking an inventory of wounds, Soren finally moved to sit up, grunting when the shoulder that had taken the brunt of the impact complained. Sighing, he prodded at where the bruise would likely bloom, making sure that it wasn't dislocated before he tried to stand again. It was surprisingly much more easier this time round. Moving carefully, he made his way towards where their jump-base had smashed through, stumbling backwards when a smaller rock broke off and bounced off towards the bottom in a rather cinematic movement.


"Alright, alright. I won't go there," he muttered to no one in particular, moving away and wondering what to do next. They hadn't really thought this wouldn't go according to plan. Soren sighed, trying to recall how many people he had seen jump off. He was pretty sure he had seen Maria get thrown off and Alex as well. Both before him. Which meant they were probably on the floor above. Pausing a moment, Soren tilted his head back to study the holes which had been formed when the rock had punched its way through. No one seemed to be lingering near its edges to peer down - because not everyone's an idiot like you, Ren, seriously - which was a good sign. He rolled his shoulders and made his way away from treacherous footing towards the more intact parts of the skyscraper, peering at the words here and there in interest as he walked along.


"Hello? Anyone here?" He called, feeling rather foolish because it didn't look like the skyscraper was even still functional.

 

[Mitheral]

Mira


10.25 seconds. Mira’s eyes became pools of pitch black darkness behind her sunglasses. Eric and Alex and most of the mercs had probably assumed the sunglasses were worn to hide the black eyes they thought she received. And that was partly true. But the truth was far more grim. She WAS one of the races they thought had created the Derahn gateway system. She was a Derahn - Mak Taurog hybrid. And yet she knew of no history of her people ever creating such a system. Neither was the language of the Gateway one she knew.


12.00 seconds. She could still hear the stone crashing through the floors into the dust fill depths. She had been annoyed at Eric for his childish behavior in goading Ross. Even worse had been the fact that the boy had used her. And yet, noone, not even Lord Ross, had ever sacrificed themselves on her behalf - more than once. The beating Eric had taken to protect her beloved Mak Taurani had not been forgotten.


15.00 seconds. Mira unfastened the sash worn about the lab coat she wore over her black bodysuit. The sash became a long bullwhip. This was no Earthly material, but a material much much tougher. She lashed out with it and caught the end of a girder sticking out and tested the strength of the beam. Satisfied that it would hold she leapt off the edge of the gaping hole and into the abyss. Only she didn’t fall as a human might, Rather she floated downwards under what might have seemed more like lunar gravity reaching the next floor down. She repeated the process until she found Dr Tanis. As she has suspected Dr Tanis would originally have been Eric’s first priority.





Alex Tanis


Alex was glad now that Eric had insisted on long sleeves of whatever the durable material he was wearing was. He had been thrown onto a floor covered with broken glass. It was rather warm, but he decided to leave the heavier clothing on until he was out of here. And his sports band had done the trick. He could still see. Then with a sinking feeling he realized Eric hadn’t made it off the platform.


For several seconds he was frozen into inaction. Should he go after Eric? Wait for Eric to come find him? He tried to force himself to breathe and think things through. The mercs had practically exploded. So Mira’s theory about hypergic energy differentials across quantum points was correct It had destabilized chemicals of low stability. They had all been fairly certain that an EMP effect might be experienced. So much for his expertise in the digital area.


Then Mira came falling into his floor in what looked like a less that Earth gravity. “How--?”


Mira knew something that Alex didn’t. She had known all about Eric’s plan. She had seen him feeding Romulus. He had seen Eric smuggle the thrall Ross had imprisoned to keep Alex loyal, and thus Eric. She had heard Eric suggest the men stow their guns under their vests if they wanted to conceal a holdout pistol without bulges being visible. It had been a cold, logical plan. Risky, but logical. For a brief moment, she wondered if SHE had been a part of that plan.





Eric Blackwell


How the hellhound had managed the feat Eric would never know. The mutt had shouldered the impact of I beams, and small boulders of concrete. Then the hound had done the impossible. He had stood up, grabbed Eric literally by the seat of his pants and pawed at floors rapidly going by. Eric had been about to object when his forehead slammed into his own legs. When he came to again he found Romulus holding onto a floor for dear life as the stone platform continued to fall.


Romulus growl - whined. Eric managed to twist his sore body around to get a hold of Romulus’ collar and started to climb up. “Hang on boy!” It took some doing, but he managed to get onto the floor above and started to look around. Almost as if fate had decided Romulus was to die, the flooring broke loose and the hellhound fell.





“Romulus!”


Moments later there was a crash below. Eric was torn between two decisions. Go up to get Alex and Ulana - or go down and rescue Romulus - who was probably dead and buried beneath tons of rubble. He balked at the choice long enough to call up.





“Alex? Ms Ross? Dr Picard?” He figured they had to be at least a dozen floors above him.


+++++++++++++++++++


Mira lashed out with her whip again and gestured Alex over. Alex’s eyes went wide as he shook his head and backed up. A little annoyed Mira loosen the whip and walked over to Alex and scooped her left arm about him with inhuman strength and dragged him back to the ledge. Then she repeated the process of getting down a few times. True she could have found the stairwells. But she didn’t want to have to search every floor for Soren.


Mira and Alex found Soren only several floors down. He’d been quick. Of the entire group he probably had the fastest reflexes a human could have. And he had fared surprisingly well, his training of taking a fall saving him from serious injury.


Kritch appeared chittering excitedly. Mira gestured and the little demon landed on her shoulder. After being soothed a bit the little guy took off again and flew down the shaft. Mira seemed to stare into empty space for a few moments. Then she nodded, and gestured for the others to follow her.


It wasn’t long at all before signs of life - or rather previous life - were spotted. Here and there they found skeletal remains of humans in various poses. There was that had been huddled together when they died. It looked as if a neutron bomb had gone off perhaps a couple decades ago with very little warning.


Several floors down Mira led them out of the stairwell and into the offices there. this was where they found Kritch again and the food chest. She did the combination - a simple mechanical one such as was common on briefcases and bicycle chains - opened the trunk. There packed inside was a naked woman of Japanese descent with an O2 bottle. Around her neck was a heavy collar. This was Ulana.


Mira thought about it only for a moment. She slipped the tip of her whip inside the collar and it snaked itself around a few times. Then she yanked hard slicing the nearly indestructible material neatly. Mira looked at Alex, removed her lab coat handing it over to the man and gestured to Ulana.


Alex nodded and swallowed hard taking the lab coat. It was clear that this woman had a great deal to do with the younger man’s reluctance to speak. “Thank you Lady Mira.” He covered Ulana as best he could, then prodded her. “Ulana?”


Mira rarely ever spoke. In fact, until Kritch had flown into the jump Alex couldn’t recall her doing so. Now she did so again. “Radiation.”


Alex looked up. “Hmm? Must have been a neutron bomb. Papers on some of the desks were dated 1986. But I am guessing it has been at least a couple decades. Still you may be right. If so, that means we need to find the other fast and get out of here.”


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Ulana


++++++++++++


++++++++++++++


It wasn’t hard to see there the noise had come from. The tall pagoda styled skyscraper - which Karen insisted was THE Pagoda - had dust billowing out of the windows. The lower the floors of the building, the more dust there was. Something heavy had broken loose up near the top and fallen through the floors to the bottom.


Karen had announced that this WAS Tokyo. She had found a newspaper, old and fading, dated 1986, written in Japanese. That meant that some sort of catastrophe had occured and stopped the industry in that year. How long it had been was anyone’s guess. The rad count was definitely high. They couldn’t remain here forever. But then whoever was in the Pagoda might not be aware of the radiation. While Elissa wasn’t a True Healer and was a survivalist, she still felt a need to try - despite the dangers.





“Okay ladies,” she looked back at Karen and Sly. “Sly, stay close. No point position today. The Matrix can only protect you if you stay close. Bad news is, while it protects us it can’t recharge. So let’s get in there, see if we can locate the other Matrix users, and get out. They may have separated. They may be buried under rubble. That was a hell of a place to arrive. Must have been tons of rock suddenly arriving on the floor of one of the upper levels.”


Karen nodded. “About 150 tons or it if it was typical granite … roughly.” She ignored the fact that her new friends were staring at her. “Wild guess?” She grinned. “Assuming a 3 meter radius like ours, and an average specific gravity of granite of 2.70, approximately 152 metric tons.”


Elissa smiled back. Karen normally didn’t like to show just how intelligent she was. But every now and then she showed off. “Approximately …. right. Okay, I don’t need to remind you. They even look like they are about to attack, shoot them. Sly, try to be sure they are actually about to attack.”


“What?” Sly looked upset. “You mean the guy at the tavern? He had a knife. I didn’t hit him. He was small. (She did not mean his height.) I missed by a mile. So how many do you suppose there are?”


“Four, perhaps five at least. They had explosive compounds on them. That was all the gunfire we heard. It sounded tamped - muffled - so they might have known about the effects of jumping and been trying to carry ammo separately. They’ve been spread out throughout the skyscraper. And I can hear them calling one another. Guys?” Elissa looked back at Mook and Talon. “You think you guys will be okay?”


Mook and Talon had been carrying weapons - well they all had - when they made their first jump. Elissa had very nearly killed herself trying to save them. Talon had had to order Sly to restrain her. That had not gone over well at all. Sly had used up far too much of her Perth powder to heal Elissa. But that is exactly what they saved the miracle herb for. Elissa could heal them, but at the expense of her own health. And she couldn’t really heal herself. So the Perth powder was reserved for her - or extreme emergencies. Mook had been the other emergency. He was the one who carried explosives all the time. They all did. But he was the worst affected. It was sheer luck that they had been running very low on supplies at the time.


Elissa had been allowed to heal them just enough to survive and become mobile - if slowed. But Mook ordered her to assume command. That was SOP.


Karen they had met a couple jumps back. She had been heavily armed with mechanically advanced needler weapons made of some sort of advanced alloy. While they lacked the firepower or range of a gun, they were a lot quieter and could be reloaded. Plus the weapons were surprisingly light. She had shared readily - preferring to use her katana anyways. Elissa thought the woman was a bit of a show off, but it was nice to have someone new to spar with. And she suspected that Karen was even better with a blade than she was. That was a first.


Mook and Talon nodded that they could keep up. Elissa knew Mook well enough to know he would never endanger his group by lying. He gave Talon a hard glance, but the larger man just nodded. Sly challenged Talon as well until the man smiled and reassured her.  
As they moved in Mook’s group began to fan out in silence with a long practiced formation. This was far from their first time scouting old ruins. Even Karen lapsed into silence. automatically kerchiefs came out and they covered their mouths to make breathing easier. The exception was Karen. Elissa handed her a spare and the woman nodded silent thanks.


Elissa gave hand gestures to indicate where the bulk of the group above was at. She could literally hear them walking on debris. She did a quick mental tally of their numbers once more. Her count wouldn’t include any unconscious or dead victims of course. But it did give Mook an idea of the odds in the event of a fight. They always assumed potential adversaries were skilled. The most dangerous foe was the one you underestimated.


They found Romulus just sitting on top of the pile of debris. Covered with a mix of blood and dust. The damned hellhound wasn’t even hurt. Well that wasn’t entirely true. He had been hurt. But the wounds weren’t likely to slow him down for long. Hellhounds were extremely tough creatures.


Elissa’s response was one of extreme shock and fear. Mook saw her look back - as did the rest. It was the sort of look he hadn’t seen on her face since she had been a child. Her weapons came out but with far less poise than she normally showed.


Karen, who had walked most of the time looking as though she was ready to keel over from exhaustion using her katana as a cane, stepped forward with her needler pistol drawn. Her face was impassive. Sly had likewise knocked an arrow and was ready to let her arrow fly.


Except for one thing - the hound wasn’t attacking. Mook’s curiosity was drawn to this fact. Most mutant canines they were familiar with were positively lethal, hunted in packs, and and took heavy firearms to take down unless one got very lucky.


“Hold your fire!” Mook’s voice hissed. “Elissa! it isn’t attacking - and it’s wearing a collar.”


Elissa sounded almost panicked. “You don’t understand. It who it belongs to that we have to worry about!”


“The things that killed your parents?” Mook’s voice was gentle. Elissa hadn’t seemed the slightest bit afraid until she saw the hound. He watched as her head bobbed up and down. “Do these sound anything like them?”


N-no...uhm … no. They sound human.” She swallowed hard, reason starting to filter into her senses.


“A dog’s a dog. Maybe they rescued it from some of those demons. They may have adopted it.” Mook suggested.


Talon finally spoke. “Hell of a pet. It survived that.” He’d never admit it but he really didn’t want to tangle with anything that could survive that collapse. But they had faced worse. If they had to Mook would find a way. He always did.


Romulus cocked his head at the group of kids that were talking about him. Then he sneezed nearly starting the firefight everyone wanted to avoid. That was followed by nervous laughter. Mook said something about nobody sneezing, which provoked a bit of chuckling.


“Bless you?” Karen suggested. The animal was sort of cute in a butt-ugly sort of way.


Mook suggested they all wait until the other group made their way down. He also suggested that back out to the surface level where they couldn’t be trapped in the basement levels. The fact that they could be waited out and starved to death wasn’t lost on him. The other group was moving pretty slow - probably banged up a bit. This other group interested him - a lot.


Romulus, of course, ambled after Mook and his friends - whether they liked it or not. When they stopped to look back at him, he stopped and watched until they started up again.


This all ended up with everyone on the ground floor. Romulus waited by the stairwell and woofed. Mook and his friends took up positions to cover the exit from the stairwell from cover. Mook told Elissa he would handle this. Mook was usually the leader. But he also usually handled diplomacy. 
Ground Level Pagoda Building, Tokyo, Japan


Date: ca 2014. (estimated)


Probability: Alternate Timeline in which a thermonuclear war devastated the planet in 1986.


Present:


Mook


Talon


Elissa Denim


Sly


Karen Adams


Alex Tanis


Eric Blackwell


Soren Picard


Ulana


Mira


Romulus


Kritch


Romulus had pretty much given away the group’s impending arrival on the ground floor. Noone in Mook’s group seemed willing to try to stop the hellhound from clawing at the stairwell exit. Mook, however, did not want to surprise the approaching group. While an ambush might be advantageous in many situations, this wasn’t one of them. People who got ambushed didn’t generally want to speak - and he had questions.


First, this was clearly a group of time travellers. The hemisphere of stone was ample proof of that. Second, they seemed to be a mixed group of humans and at least one demonic creature. There had to be a story behind that. Elissa has told HIM about how her parents had been killed. But the rest of the group had never heard the story. There wasn’t much to it really. That was when Elissa had been given her Matrix. She had only been a child. Her mother had given her the Matrix and told her to hide. It was the very fact that Elissa had been a child that made Mook question the idea that ALL demons were bad. Many humans thought the same about mutants. He saw no difference between demons and mutants. They were simply biologically different. Good and evil were matters of the individual.


Mook got the hound’s attention and gestured to the door knob. Hesitantly he moved in and opened the door so Romulus could go into the stairwell. Once the hound was through. Mook spoke up the shaft. “You up there, incoming. I think your hounds wants to greet you. I and my friends would like to speak with you as well. But I prefer not to surprise you with our presence. It is just that you should know the area is hot - as in radiation. So unless you happen to be immune, it would be a good idea for us to meet and move out of the area.”

 

[luggage]

Soren had been staring around at the walls when he had heard the thump that meant that someone had landed behind him. Or two someones as he noticed when he turned around. Mira was standing with what appeared to be a long whip and Alex was trapped against her with her arm around him, rather like an unwilling damsel. He resisted the urge to crack a grin at that. It was not the moment. Then they had wandered past skeletal remains - what happened here? - and offices that didn't seem like them anymore. Everything had fallen into disrepair. A few floors down and the food locker was there, relatively unharmed, with no Eric around. But there was a naked woman inside the food locker which suddenly made a whole lot more sense as to why Eric was heading towards it. It just keeps getting curiouser and curiouser. I feel like I'm too deep in the rabbit hole to get back out, Soren thought faintly, watching as Alex covered the woman with the lab-coat. Ulana they had said her name was. Soren wondered why she had an oxygen tank. Deciding to ignore that for the moment, he took the moment to study her.


She was pretty enough, he noted, and seemed, well, Asian. He was rather ashamed to admit that he couldn't differentiate between Japanese, Chinese and Korean residents. And she was naked and not conscious. He thought that they were rather obvious facts and didn't need to be stated. But then Mira suddenly spoke - a single word, but a word nonetheless - and Alex was saying something about a neutron bomb. Soren looked over at that, blinking curiously. Neutron bomb? I think we must be in an alternate timeline then. It doesn't look rather futuristic and I doubt this was in the past. Huh. Radiation from an Enhanced is higher, isn't it? Which means death by radiation sickness. We really should get out of here. Seemingly that had been agreement and they had all made their way down the stairwell, picking up Eric on the way. (Soren was a bit embarrassed to admit that he had almost kicked Eric in the head out of sheer alarm when they saw him.) It had taken them a while to go down the floor, made all the more longer with Ulana and the limp that Soren was sporting, but they made a respectable speed. They had been nearing the bottom, or so he assumed from the way the others were talking, when there was a noise. The sound of claws against metal sounded out loudly. Soren felt everything in him tense, one foot slowly moving backwards to take on a more firmer stance on the stairs. He wondered if he could manage a flying kick at whatever was on the other side in low space. Then the screech of metal as the door opened. And suddenly there was a bloodied and rather eager Romulus bounding up the stairs, going straight for Eric and covering him with enthusiastic licks. Soren let out a startled laugh, sagging against the banister in relief. At least their overgrown puppy was alright. He was just about to say something when a voice sounded. Of course he went tense again.


"Moving out sounds like a good idea," he muttered, trying to judge the age of whoever was talking. He wasn't really that good at it, if he was honest. But when had that ever been something he had needed to know? The only things important to him had been everything related with architecture and getting rid of the gang that was hellbent on tracking him down. Rolling his sore shoulder, he glanced at the rest of the team and tried to gauge their reactions before giving up. "Thanks for the warning," he called down the stairwell, feeling tired again as Romulus' tail thumped steadily against the side of the shaft and he woofed pleasantly. If their plan was to have us slip on dog slobber it might just work yet. And who are they? How do they know about the radiation? Do they live here? Did they see us break down their skyscraper?

 

[Mitheral]

Eric found himself bowled over and have covered in dog drool. Mira looked down and studied them, her face dispassionate. The younger man laughed, “Okay, okay Romulus. Good to see you too. Word to the wise everyone. Never do any deed for which you can’t handle the gratitude.” He managed to get out from under the hound. “I think I owe you another steak dinner if we ever get a chance.” He glanced up at Mira. “Not that I ever gave you one to begin with. I don’t believe he doesn’t even look hurt.”


Eric looked as Alex - who was supposed to be the team leader. At least that was how Ross had assigned them. Alex hardly noticed until Eric prodded him. He would personally have preferred that Soren keep right on doing the talking. But of all the members of the group he and Mira were the least battered. And Mira wasn’t much of a talker.


Alex decided to step out into the open - as had Mook - and met the man halfway. Mook remained a respectable distance - about 10 feet - close enough to speak, but a little far to lunge and attack. Mook made it easy and started. He began with introductions. Alex did the same. Then Mook opened up.





“Let’s make this quick. You need to either regroup with your people or gather close with ours. Some of them won’t like it. We tend to prefer a larger spread when outdoors so we aren’t such easy targets. But simply put - you are time travellers as are we. You arrived here a little while after us. We spotted the debris from the wake of your arrival. Your other two men were dead and buried under tons of rubble. I guess they found out the hard way that unstable molecules - such as explosives and flammables - don’t take well to time travel. Same thing happened to me. I am extremely lucky to be alive. I was low on supplies when we made our first jump.


“Digital electronics also don’t fare well. Simple electronics - such as a flashlight or my rad badge - are okay. But batteries don’t do well, so it is better if they are removed. I’m not sure why my rad badge has survived so well. I can’t remove the battery. Also crystals don’t fare well. Your glasses are eventually going to develop pits, microfractures, and finally cracks. Gems devalue. Metal gets pitted. As near as I can tell there are two causes at work. One is an EMP effect caused by hypergic differentials between parachronic coordinates. The other is a spatial fluctuation. The latter is probably what destabilizes unstable molecules.”


“Now then, if we are going to travel together, we need to get one thing straight. I’m will be in command. One leader. You will assume responsibility for your own people. But if there’s a fight, follow orders or get left behind. This place is like home to me. I am thinking that you are more like Ms Adams and accustomed to a tamer environment. We can discuss this again once we are in a safer zone.


“Now then, we should head that way.” He pointed south. “No guarantees, but it looked more alive with greenery. That could be dangerous in itself. Plus we passed a department store. We can stop and pick up some bicycles. Talon and I are still recovering from injuries. And Karen can barely walk. And we can try to find some clothing for Ulana. Do not take metal with any plans to keep it. We’ll lose the bikes later. The metal may still retain radiation. But the time it will save us is worth it.”


Karen grimaced. “I’ll manage.” She eyed Soren. He was the only man in her age range as near as she could tell. The rest were practically teenagers.

 

[luggage]

Soren rolled both his shoulders as he absently listened on, bringing up a hand to prod at the undoubtedly bruised skin and feeling it for damage. He had had worse in training for his belts. Much worse in competitions where they were told to fight without guards. But still, the small bruises hurt more than they had any right to in the moment. So, no metal, follow the kid, and get out of here. Sounds like a plan to me. He took a moment to glance around. The other boy's team was filled with what looked like kids a few years younger than him and a woman that seemed to be around his age. He was never good with ages anyways. She was staring at him, the woman who looked to be his age. Soren studied her with interest, eyeing the katana with undisguised curiosity. I didn't fight with katanas if he could help it.


Which reminds me. Trying to seem discreet about it - because you never know when you need hidden weapons - he patted at where he had stowed away the little collection of shaken and shuriken. They seemed to be safe. Then he lightly trailed his fingers along where he had the nunchaku and felt comforted at feeling them too. Nunchaku were another weapon he didn't particularly like fighting with, but they were better than a katana. Straightening up, he tried to minimize his limp and appear not as bruised as he felt. It still felt painful to stand up straight like that. Soren had missed the whole conversation too, apparently, because he had spent the time feeling for his weapons. He cast a quick glance around to see if it was anything serious before looking towards Mook - who was going to be their leader it seemed. As if Alex wasn't young enough, now we've got a teenager leading us. Are they all seriously fine with this?





"Alright, getting out of here sounds like a great idea. I trust the building to stay standing but I'd rather not be here if it goes down. Which way did you say the exit was?" Soren asked, glancing up at the ceiling once and wishing he had blueprints of the place to assess it more properly but deciding that his naked eye would have to be enough. Everything looked fine, yes, but he was worried what would happen if the structure wouldn't hold. It looked like it would stay up for a while, but better safe than sorry as the saying went. And the chunk had been rather heavy as it smashed through everything. Dropping his gaze back to the others, he looked at them expectantly. Honestly this is not what I'm cut out for. I'm meant to be owning a firm and running a business, not running around in alternate timelines with a somewhat unstable building. What possessed me to say yes again? Oh, right, the lure of space and time. Who doesn't like a good episode of Doctor Who?

 

[Mitheral]

Mook’s group fell silent as they began the march. At least they were silent until Eric spoke up with a question. Mook motioned them to halt. Then he calmly turned and explained - patiently - that his scouts needed to be able to hear threats. He explained that there WERE, in fact threats. He didn’t know what kind, but probably carnivorous and large. His own group had skirted a pack of whatever they were. He suspected large felines, but mutated. And it was the main reason he wanted better transport.


Karen suggested a vehicle. Eric wanted to find motorcycles. Mook considered the ideas seriously. He could work miracles when it came to nursing an engine to life. But the noise of an engine might be worse than the protection it could offer. “If not for the rad levels I’d say yes. But to would take us half a day just to get a vehicle move and create a protective cage against the predators.


Well, it didn’t take long for the combined group to locate a department store, then stare searching the store for clothing for Ulana. The look on the four kids faces as Ulana started to take a moment to look at herself in a mirror before trying on the clothes was worth noting. Talon and Mook both rolled their eyes. Ulana flushed a little and hurried up, though it was pretty clear that she would have loved to shop.


Then came the real amusement - at least for Soren and Karen. Mook and Elissa had some experience with a bicycle. Sly and Talon, however, had never even been on one. But as they had never tried before, they had to try now. It was like watching children - with handlebars wobbling unsteadily. However, their learning curve was pretty fast. And despite their dislike of technology, they agreed for the short trip to get outside the rad zone, they could put up with it.


Mook also suggested they run two to a bike. He and Talon simply weren’t in the best of shape if they needed to run. Neither was Karen. So he paired himself with Elissa; Talon with Sly. This appeared to be his team’s usual pairing up. Mira shook her head.


“We travel apart. I believe I can arrange alternate transportation. It is close by. But these should get us to it much faster.” Mook started to object. He did not like changing plans without good reason. “Non motorized. I have already located it. It will take a little work to assemble it.” She pointed at a wall. “And it will carry us all.”


Mook finally nodded, taking the items he would need if her plan failed and he needed to make the bikes better able to handle pairs. They could always ditch half the bikes. As it turned out Mira’s alternate transport was a rickshaw - or rather a chain of five rickshaws. There was at least a dozen of them at a park. They were all identical, designed to stack like shopping carts. It took maybe 10-15 minutes for Soren, Mook, and Eric to assemble them into a train. Then it came time for the real problem. Eric had realized what Mira had in mind as soon as he saw the rickshaws.

Mira and Ulana worked on a harness. Soon even Romulus realized what the plan was. He growl whined. He didn’t much like this plan. But it was surprisingly Mira - who was speaking more in a matter of minutes - than she had for over a month. Her voice hardly above a whisper she said:


“Two steak dinners.” Then she glanced at Eric, who grinned back. Romulus growl whined again, then ambled over to take his position.


Karen couldn’t help but to murmur. “Would he do it for TWO Scooby snacks?”


Mook was less leery about the plan once they got rolling. Romulus was more than strong enough to pull them all. And he wasn’t slow at all. In fact they had to slow him down for fear of damaging the train on debris. He was averaging 30 mph easily. He seemed to be practically playing around doing even that. At one point Elissa warning of some of the carnivores flanking them. Romulus picked up the pace and the pack lost interest. Mook and his friends seemed to have no interest in “adventure” by way of having to fight, despite their BDU’s. Avoiding the fight was better than surviving it.


Rather than ditching the rickshaw train, the group selected what Mook and his friends considered a defensible location. Mook announced that the area was within safe limits of radiation and they could let the Matrices recharge while they camped.


Alex decided it was time to confront Mook about leadership. “Mook, I take it we are out of the immediate danger zone. I’m not so sure my people are thrilled with taking orders … you know…”


Mook smiled, but remained business like. “Yes, this is an appropriate time for this discussion. I am actually very selective about who I team up with. But you are concerned about my age. Fair enough. How many battles have you been in? Archaeological expeditions. Wars? Out here, this is a wasteland with mutated creatures. You are a Ville dweller.”


“Here … yes. But you said you travel. What happens when you find yourself in a city with a population of 7 million? Cars fly down the street twice as fast as the rickshaw did. People expect you to pay with electronic currency for food. And hunting for food isn’t legal without a licence. You’d make so many mistakes in the first hours you’d end up in prison or dead.”


Mook’s smile slowly broadened into a grin. He actually liked the debate. “Go on. what do you have in mind?”


“We adopt a survivalist mode - like yours upon initial arrival. You have survival instincts we don’t. If it soon becomes clear we are in a setting like I described, MY team - plus Ms Adams, who seems better adapted to such a setting as well - assumed command - led by me … or someone my group selects. I was really assigned as leader for archaeological reasons. But it would need to be someone familiar with how to act.”


Mook nodded. “I’ll need to speak with my group in private. It’s not personal. You’d have to understand where we are from and all we have been through. Understand, if our groups join, we will have to establish some rules. We do not simply abandon our people, not while there is any chance at all to save them. Anyways, before we split up for separate group discussions, maybe we could all just talk - over a meal?”


Alex nodded. “Fair enough.” He thought about it. HIS people? Truth to tell the only person he might really call his would be Eric. Eric actually worked for him. And Ulana was … He wasn’t sure what she was to him. He had let himself get pretty worked over for her. There was so much he really wished he could have told Soren before they jumped. “How about we start with Matrix Basics 101. Then we get around to what your group is traveling for and we can discuss ours.”


Mook nodded, then shook his head. Maybe the reverse. “Very simply put, my group is trying to get home - sort of. To be very honest there is no home to return to. Our barony fell to a civil war. Our Baron and Baroness were killed. Ane the Restorationist Party tried to assassinate the Baron’s son - a very good friend of ours. He was a Restorationist himself. They militarized and we were forced to flee the barony. I guess we’ve been looking for something. We just aren’t sure what. Karen? Well, I can’t speak for her. She wasn’t part of our original group.”


Alex nodded. “Okay .. My group … is really a hodge podge. Eric, Dr Picard and myself are the core group. Ulana was being held as a prisoner - leverage against me. Our employer could have cared less about Eric, but Eric insisted on joining us as my bodyguard. Eric must have snuck Ulana into the jump. Ms Ross - or Mira - was our employer’s wife. Her being here was an accident. She was chasing her Mak Taurani, Kritch, who was running to Eric. Our purpose was very simple - to search for the creators of the Matrix.”


“And you ended up here?” Mook smirked.


“Well, the location was intentional. But the time is all wrong. I’m not sure why exactly our employer wanted us to go to ancient Japan first.” Alex looked over at Ulana.


Ulana finally spoke up. “It is because that was when I was born. My parents arrived in ancient Japan. My father taught the ancient Japanese the art of sword making. I am afraid that finding the creators of the Matrix is impossible however. Rauzm’taraug - or Lord Ross - is looking in the wrong direction. The creators are in the distant future - not the past. And it is not possible to travel forward beyond the present. That is, if you were from the year 2014, you could not travel to 2015, unless you had already been there.”


Now Alex looked to Karen. “Well, Ms Adams, what is your story?”


Karen shrugged. “My life didn’t turn out the way one might like. I suppose I was looking for something different. I needed to die; so I did. I’m not trying to get anywhere or find anything. But if you like, I’ll help. Least I can do.”


Mook sighed. “Never a straight answer. Vague as always.”


(OOC: Okay … holding up here. Post is getting kinda long.)

 

[luggage]

They had stopped somewhere that was far enough away from radiation and apparently easy to defend. Soren was sitting on the ground, a ninja star out in his hand and picking his fingernails with it as he listened to the conversation idly. He wasn't very tempted to talk, honestly, because he felt like he didn't have enough information. Too much and too little are both bad, as some famous dead man had said. He leaned back on his palms, surveying the area and the people around him. The other group seemed to be tight-knit. They all moved like they knew each other and had been travelling together a long while. Rather unlike how their own group was, Soren grudgingly admitted. Not to mention their group was practically brimming with secrets and mystery. He felt like there was quite a bit they were left in the dark about, but he could be very well wrong. The most he wanted to know, though, was how those unlikely people had ended up together. Well, he didn't know them so he couldn't really make comments on them being unlikely, he supposed.


Soren sighed, peering into the distance where he could see the building they had left behind. It was still standing - as was to be expected of a structure like that - and didn't look like it was going to fall anytime soon. Though it looked strange to see an area so devoid of life so near to them. If he was a lesser man he would have shuddered theatrically at the chill that went up his spine. As it was, he simply huffed out another breath and looked towards where the others were having their little conversation and tried to focus on it. He just caught the last snippets.


"You say they're from the distant future. How do you even know that? And even if you do, and you said we can't go there, what'll we do? Are we going to find alien species hanging around on this Earth? Are we supposed to find another gateway? Who had the grafts - I know I didn't. How long does it take the flippin' things to recharge?" He paused, shaking his head and looking back at the two leaders. "Seriously, what are we going to do? Are we supposed to wander around until we find someone that'll nudge us in the right direction? I feel like we're in a really bad MMORPG here; the questing sucks and everything else is just plain buggy." By the end his voice had lowered into a grumble as he straightened himself up and dusted his palms on his pants, leaning his elbows on his knees and peering at the others. "Plus, not to be rude, I don't really know any of you or trust any of you."

 

[Mitheral]

Her story? She didn’t really know her story - save for what she had pieced together from the news. She was lucky she knew anything at all. How many times could a mind be destroyed and still retain anything of the person who once was? She was like her codename - Blade. She had been broken so many times and reforged. She was not the 16 year old girl whose dream had been to become a world famous journalist.


To explain what she was now - or had been before her time traveling days had begun - would have sounded either preposterous or insane. If anyone believed her it would sound like bragging, though she wasn’t especially proud of her past. For her it had been her 12 year nightmare. Her mind had been broken for the last time.


She raised her hands to her temples and rubbed. Her eyes felt tired. Her body was sore all over - though not quite as bad as it used to be. She hated to admit it but the rickshaw train had been a good idea - even if even that had left her sore anyways. As was usually the case when so close to a city, Mook and his friends had decided not to allow a fire. But they had made up for this by sharing MRE’s.


Soren was right. None of them knew each other - save for a few. The rest had to contend with taking anyone else’s word for the truth. She flipped a coin and watched as it spun in the air in its ballistic path. When it landed she murmured, “78.” She sighed. “The simple truth is, if I may, that none of us CAN know the others. We have only their word to contend with. Truthfully, does it really matter what our stories are? I don’t think anyone would care to hear MY sob story. Perhaps for some the past is important to our future. But for most of us our names and skill sets would be more useful information. But very well… how about a round of introductions. Then we can begin sharing a pool of information on time travel. Lastly, we can make some sort of plans.”


Mook nodded. As did Alex. Mook gestured to Karen. “Your idea. How about you set an example and start us off?”


Karen allowed a grim smile. She had flipped the coin again. She blinked and her lips moved slightly as if mumbling to herself. “Karen Adams. Daughter of a detective. I was originally going to major in Journalism, but got sidetracked into espionage. My specialties - beyond the obvious, the katana - would include spy skills. I am an excellent hacker. I am fluent in numerous languages. The injuries I am recovering from resulted from being caught in the blast of a bomb.” She paused there and looked at Mook.


Mook shook his head slightly and laughed. “Still being evasive. But that’s the most complete story we’ve heard yet. Okay, fair enough, my own team has its own share of members who don’t like to talk about their backgrounds. So if they don’t mind, I’ll handle the introductions.” He glanced at his people.


“I’m Mook - no other names. I was found by our old Baron’s men when I was a child, living in some old ruins. I was taken back to Horn and made a companion to the Baron’s son, Alexander. He and I got along like brothers. They discovered I was a prodigy and allowed to study at the University. I studied engineering and various sciences. Of course, I would expect that any of you that had had a formal education would have had a more thorough training than I have. Elissa?”


Elissa nodded. “I can handle my introduction.” Of all of Mook’s friends she was the most capable of public speaking. And it was why she was the natural second in command. “Elissa Denim. I am our team’s medic. I am a minor empath. I DO trust most of you, although I have a little trouble reading some. My mother was a fully trained healer. She taught me what she could. However, my parents were slain by … demons. There is no better word to describe them. That was when my mother gave me the Matrix.” Elissa stared at Kritch with a haunted expression.


Ulana’s face softened. “Perhaps someone from our group should speak.” She glanced at Mira. “Or two of us. My skillset would be biomedical and diplomatic. I am Lady Ulana, daughter of the Lord Keth and Lady Ishtara. Lord Keth was a Mak Taurog, the leader of the Derahn Resistance against the Iron Wind - what Alex has referred to as the Derahn Empire. The demons you refer to, Elissa, must have been part of the Iron Wind. They have been trying to seize Matrices and use them to conquer all of time and space.


“It is not uncommon for them to create Jai Shin - humans grafted with demon genetics. Soren, you are correct. You were not grafted. Lord Ross would not have trusted you with a graft. He would have lied about them being double blind. Lady Mira would know exactly who was grafted - as she would have completed those herself. Lord Ross hoped to send all of you back to ancient Japan to stop Lord Keth there.


“The plan of the Iron Wind is to destabilize as many timelines as possible, to make it easier for them to conquer. The creators of the Matrix enlisted me to stop them. I believe the matrix creators are from the distant future - in a time when the three races have finally merged into one. But I also suspect that not everyone in their time was satisfied with the result and may have chosen to try to assist the Iron Wind. I have nothing to verify that suspicion. However, the demons who attacked Elissa’s family may have been sent by them. I believe they would have been trying to prevent THIS meeting. Lady Mira?”


Mira nodded. “I am Lady Mira. My specialty is biotechnology. Lord Ross, their employer, is my mate. I am a Mak Taurog-Derahn hybrid. My mate is a Mogradoth. I was in service to what you would call a mercenary order known as Darkhold. My husband was coercing these people into work. Or he was seeking out suitable employees whose options for employment had become limited - such as Dr Soren Picard.”


Mook frowned. “How about we dispense with the formalities of titles? Doctor this and Lord that. While I understand that titles confer respect, if we are indeed going to travel together and depend on one another, we’ll need to show respect more than say it. And no disrespect intended, but I think I would not have got along well with your husband.”


“None taken. And he does rub a lot of people the wrong way,” Mira agreed.


“Rom-you-luss,” the giant hellhound intruded on the conversation. “Rom-you-luss.”


(OOC: Going to stop here so you can get a word in edgewise. I didn’t get to most of the group. neither did I get to the sharing of information. Up to you is we go through all the intros. There WILL be some information about Matrix use and side effects.)

 

[luggage]

Soren sat back, absorbing the information that was being information that was being given freely. The only information, he had a sneaking suspicion, that would be. No one seemed to want to talk about their pasts - which was fair enough. He didn't particularly want to either - and beyond the obvious, there weren't going to be many anecdotes. He could tell. But even the skill sets and names were more than what he expected. Blinking, he found his gaze flitting over to study Karen before flickering over to the hellhound when he woofed his name out. It was strange and just a touch amusing, a small grin making its way onto his face.


Deciding for a moment to freak out over Mira being an alien - it wouldn't do to not show a united front to the others. He had to look like he knew all along. What was it that father had once said? United against others even if you hate one another. You are to show strength, always. Yes, it had been something along those lines. So Soren sat straighter and glanced around at everyone, wondering how many of them were also aliens and not saying anything. And didn't that...Elissa was it? Didn't she say something about her being an empath? What does that even mean? A healer too. Is she a mutant? Like in the X-Men? Shaking his head very slightly, he dismissed the thought.


"Man, I studied for the sole reason that I could get a Doctor next to my name," he joked, passing Mook a grin. "I'm Soren Picard - as everyone mentioned. I'm a specialist on the team. I did engineering too. Mostly civil and architecture. Tried my hand at electronics but, ah, life got in the way of that one so I didn't finish the degree. I'm trained in the various martial arts." He hesitated, wondering if he should add more before shrugging and giving another quicksilver smile. "And since we're on the topic of 'demons', what's the whole thing with the Iron Wind? And how could the creators of the Matrices enlist you if they're from the future and you're not? Have you seen them? Are there other forms of communication with them? Talking about matrices, what was the whole destablisation in the beginning? There was a whole bout of dizziness and nausea in the beginning."

 

[Mitheral]

“Adenosine Triphosphate,” Ulana, Elissa and Karen chorused. There was a brief non-verbal exchange among the three before Elissa seemed to emerge the choice to speak. She continued. “Let’s finish the introductions, then Mook was probably going to have me give the biomedical explanation of Matrix effects. I suspect Ulana could explain better.”


Ulana shrugged. “I’d be curious to see what you know. I will make any corrections needed - if I know anything.”


“Doctor?” Mook repeated the title Soren held as his thinking seemed to turn inward a moment.


Elissa glanced over at Mook, then back at Soren, quite amused. She turned her body as if to hide her pointing at Mook exaggeratedly and grinning. She and Sly exchanged smiles. Talon seemed oblivious to the joke though. Clearly he was the newest member of the four.


Mook scowled a little. “Horn’s loss. I WOULD have made a record at getting the title myself if they hadn’t decided to have their stupid civil war.” He seemed to sulk as Elissa tried to soothe him a little. He practically growled as he pushed thoughts of the past from his mind. “What’s done is done. Let’s finish these introductions. Sly? Talon?” He read the body language of the pair and nodded.


“Sly is the real outlander of my closest friends here. She is a huntress. If not for her Horn would have gone through leaner times - and Talon would be a lot thinner.” Sly favored both Mook and Talon with a grin. “Her ability to obtain certain rare herbs saved more than one person - including every life in our group. Unfortunately the herbs she uses are irreplaceable and nearly gone. She is THE master of the bow. She is our scout. Her skin and hair can camouflage itself like a chameleon.


“Talon was raised since childhood as a gladiator. Master of archaic weaponry and unarmed combat. It is how we all met. He had escaped and been recaptured. So … I challenged the man who had captured him - with all our freedom as the stakes. Talon thought I was an idiot. Gave them a fight they will never forget though.”


“Or me,” Talon added quietly.


Eric was still staring at Romulus. He had thought he heard words in the hound’s growling from time to time. But that had been the first sign of real intelligence that he had heard.


“Hellhounds are sapient,” Alex told his friend. “They probably won’t go winning any Nobel Prizes, but he can comprehend the gist of our conversation. We made introductions; he made his own. You promised him steak dinners? He won’t likely forget that.”


Eric grinned, but looked seriously at the canine. “Me neither.”


Alex sighed. He had hated introduction is school. This was pretty much the same thing. He gestured to himself. “Dr Alex Tanis. Not the medical sort of doctor. Linguistics and Information Systems. I was a consultant to NSA. Uhm, that would be an intelligence gathering arm of our government. What I did for them was decryptions. At least that is the simplest way to put it. language and computer stuff.” He looked at Sly who already looked as if she was tuning out. “I guess there’s more, but none really all that important at the moment.”


Mook looked as if he had hit the jackpot. He was looking back and forth between Soren and Alex.


Eric spoke up finally. “Eric Blackwell. Mechanic, decent cook, guitarist. I’ve also had a bit of martial arts training. I miss my motorcycle already.” He shrugged and stopped there. “Like Alex said, all that is really important for now.”


Mook nodded. “Alright. Elissa? How about the medical effects of the Matrix?”


“Okay, though technically the first one - about the nausea and dizziness is also your area. We should both explain it.” She turned to the rest. “Travel to other time and possibilities destabilizes unstable molecular structures - such as explosives, gasoline, and ATP - adenosine triphosphate. ATP is responsible for our ability to put out bursts of energy - sprinting and such. Fortunately, in living organisms the destabilization is only partial - or we would explode. But it does making carrying firearms very dangerous.”


Mook nodded. “As a habit I used to carry extra weaponry - and explosives. Very nearly killed me in our first jump. I was just lucky that the only reason we jumped was because we were hard up for ammo and supplies and desperate.”


“You also weren’t hiding guns under your vests like the mercenaries Ross sent to keep an eye on us,” Eric pointed out. “Ross had explicitly told everyone not to bring firearms. They disobeyed orders.”


Elissa waited to make sure she wasn’t interrupting, then continued. “Okay … jumping also sterilizes us during a jump. I am guessing this is to keep us from carrying diseases from one place to another and spreading plagues. We can also used the Matrix to cure an illness - though that costs extra energy. It also stops the aging process. I do not know for how long.”


“About one year,” Ulana announced. “And you were about to mention that the Matrix imprints the dominant local language of the arrival point on travellers. That is also not permanent. It lasts about a month.”


“That’s about it for the biomedical? Let’s see. Okay … physical effects. EMP. It blows out digital electronics. Simple electrical devices often survive - like flashlights and my Rad counter. Crystalline substances tend to be badly affected. Gems lose value. Radio crystals may shatter. This is caused by something called hypergic energy differentials. best way to describe it is with a Slinky model. That’s a child’s toy we found once in some ruins.” He pulled the one he had found.

“Basically it doesn’t matter in which direction you travel. There is a different potential energy between the two locations. Connecting those locations is like connecting jumper cables to grounds while the generator is going. There will be a transfer of energy that hits with a surge effect. That’s the EMP. But space is also affected. That is like the effect on an image raised with Silly Putty.”

He put the Slinky away before Sly could take it and start spending hours playing with it. Then he pulled out the Silly Putty. He grinned. “And no, it isn’t any PlasEx.” He asked to borrow the coin Karen kept flipping and made an impression in the putty. Then he started to stretch it.


“Jumping does something like this to space. That affects crystals badly as they never retain their original shape. Crystalline solids are rigid by nature and don’t take well to physical shock.” He looked over at Karen. “Anything you’ve learned about a Matrix?”


Karen smiled cryptically. “Yes?” She looked over at Soren. Then she spoke. “It’s a computer, a power source, a communications device, a GPS, and a field generator. It also has built in sensors and it is sentient. Maybe I should call that an MUPS or TDPS.” While her sunglasses his the mischievous look in her eyes, her face betrayed her amusement. “GPS was a term that stood for Global Positioning System. It could give you your location anywhere on the planet by receiving broadcasts from satellites. It stands to reason that aliens who travelled the multiverse would use a more elaborate system. So … Multi Universal Positioning System … or Trans Dimensional. The important thing is that the Matrix doesn’t store all known points. Rather it interrogates a network of transdimensional, transtemporal beacons.” She looked around as if what she said would make sense to everyone. Looking at Sly and talon she realized she hadn’t. Even Elissa looked like the was struggling.


Karen frowned. “Let me simplify it. Mook, Elissa, Soren … if you would. move out to about 20 feet. You’ll be beacons. Talon and Sly, stand in the center. Memorize their positions and close your eyes. Then ask the ‘beacons’ to say Hi, one at a time. From their echoed responses you could triangulate your position. The matrix does basically the same thing, just in a much more complicated way.”


Mook nodded. “Okay … you also said it was some other things?”


Karen nodded. “Had to be. It was just a matter of whether the functions were available to the average user. Let’s see. How about … figuring out exactly when and where we are?” She pulled out her own Matrix and held it out in the palm of her hand. Suddenly the area lit up with a map of the Milky Way. “I’ll limit the display to local space.” Then she zoomed in on Earth. Suddenly hundreds of spots of light appeared like twinkling stars. “August 17, 2014. West of Tokyo, Japan … about 500 feet or less north of the Mishima Shrine. I haven’t figured out how when the timelines diverge from one another.


“Sensor. It can sense when another Matrix is used in its range. Communications. I’m not so sure it can be used like a radio. But it must communicate with its network. Field generator. It protected us from radiation. So it just stands to reason that if can project protective fields. Power generator. I jump started a car with mine. It has to take a tremendous amount of energy to do what we do. So I would imagine that it could power an electrical device easily.”

 

[luggage]

The barrage of information was a lot to sort through for the moment, so Soren kept quiet and separated it all in his mind. While he was doing that he also noticed that Mook seemed especially interested in both him and Dr Tanis. It made something in him both curl with flattery and amusement. He was sure he hadn't seen someone look that eager to have him around. Except maybe his old friends who he hadn't heard from in years. Though there was the occasional client that seemed happy to see him too. Shaking his head the slightest, he focussed back on the issue at hand. Jumping distorted space and ruined electronic devices. Affected their ATP more than he would like to admit and rendered them completely useless if only for a few seconds. There has to be some way to get rid of that. Its not the most conducive thing in the universe if we end up in a hostile environment - which I'm sure there are many around. And it was an TDPS, was it? Trans Dimensional. Now that was something worth thinking about. The possibilities of that were endless. It had many uses too. Power source, computer, and a communication device. The urge to snatch the device out of Karen's hand and to examine it was rising rather rapidly in Soren. He squashed it down ruthlessly, suddenly blinking when a map just came into existence. It was...beautiful.


"Wow," he breathed softly, leaning forwards with interest to study the map. "So how exactly are alternate timelines created? I'd assume that it'd be that way when a rift is opened between universes..." He trailed off, leaning away from the map and humming distractedly as he looked up at the foliage that hesitantly covered them. "Are timelines even part of the same universe? I remember a professor of mine once told me how we're supposed to see timelines as if they're from different universes, not this one. I never actually bothered to pay attention to that because clients don't want to know about timelines, rather about buildings. Not to mention he was obsessed with the strangest things. If only I'd listened to him, huh?"


Soren's mind flickered away from the timelines momentarily, instead grasping onto great amounts of power. So is it like a Tesseract? It just regens itself and we get clean energy?

 

[Mitheral]

Karen had noted Soren’s reaction to seeing her Matrix. Her display had flickered a little as she prepared to snatch it away. It was as if to say, “Don’t even think about it Grasshopper.” She had smiled ever so faintly at that thought. She could read the training Soren clearly had - as well as the others. Of all the people present, Soren was probably the one that could take her on in unarmed combat. Talon she wasn’t so sure. Although in her present condition neither combat would be a good idea. She understood fully the interest Mook’s group had in the man.


"Wow," Soren breathed softly, leaning forwards with interest to study the map. "So how exactly are alternate timelines created? I'd assume that it'd be that way when a rift is opened between universes..." He trailed off, leaning away from the map and humming distractedly as he looked up at the foliage that hesitantly covered them. "Are timelines even part of the same universe? I remember a professor of mine once told me how we're supposed to see timelines as if they're from different universes, not this one. I never actually bothered to pay attention to that because clients don't want to know about timelines, rather about buildings. Not to mention he was obsessed with the strangest things. If only I'd listened to him, huh?"


Karen shook her head. “Your professor was wrong. One universe. Mathematics would link the alternate timelines easily. Just a matter of higher dimensional manip --” she paused as she noted Mook studying her. She smiled and zipped her lips for a moment. Then she went back to an earlier question. “Creating an alternate timeline is simple. Change a single thing that was happened in a timeline as you recall it. For example, go back and kill Hitler before he starts WW II. Or rescue Jesus from the Romans. Rescue Moses before the Queen does and take him to a different time. Sabotage the V1 and V2 rocket tests. Stop the Chicago fire of 1871.


“Thing of it is that you can have more than one type of alternate timeline. One is Divergent. The other is Convergent. The former is the result of a major change that alters all possible outcomes for eons. This would be something like the meteor strike that wiped out the dinosaurs. The latter is a minor change that only affects matters for a limited time before the timelines effectively converge. This would be like asking some famous actor for an autograph - when in the original timeline he never met you. Would that alter history? Absolutely, but in a way that is hardly noticeable.”


“Now the best part of our three groups meeting and having their own Matrices is that there are three variables to every jump. Space, Time, Probability. Having three Matrices makes controlling them about a thousand times easier. As none of us are especially skilled this won’t be noticeable at first.”


Alex spoke up finally. “So the question is: where do we go from here? That is assuming we travel together.”


Mook thought for a moment. “We have been trying to get Karen home. And we;ve been exploring. You said something about searching history for the Creators. Ulana says that is impossible. All we can find is what they left behind. She also mentioned that the Iron Wind is out to create timelines … like this one. On our world we did uncover evidence that aliens might have been behind the events leading to Skydark. Perhaps we should concentrate on violent periods of history and set about bringing stability to them.”


Sly muttered. “I’d settle for a place where we can finally get a little R&R and recover resources - that aren’t rad blasted or mutated.”


Eric grinned and decided to speak up. “Not a bad idea. But we’ve all had a rough first day on the job. How about we see about some shut eye and figure out all this in the morning? So .. how are we going to work out the … sleeping arrangements?” He glanced around, taking time to look at Ulana. She snuck an arm around Alex - who flushed a deep crimson. Eric grinned. He wasn’t the slightest bit surprised at that. He then looked over at Mira.


Mira’s face was completely impassive. “I believe Romulus might get lonely.


“Ouch.” Eric smiled anyways.


Karen had tuned out of this part of the conversation - not that she was actually able to do so. Rather she pulled away to the edge of the group - still flipping her coin - and counting the rotations.